Evidence of the Model's Support: Jane DeDecker at Work
By A.D. Wagner
When knocking on Jane DeDecker's studio door to discuss herself and her figurative sculpture, I was expecting to see this forty-something artist sculpting the human figure. However, what I found on this day was an artist tearing apart a sculpture. The studio was in disarray from the completion of the mold for the sculpture, titled Earth, a work she had recently finished sculpting. The sculpture had been cast into bronze and the reusable oil-based clay of the original was now needed for the next sculpture. DeDecker invited me to help her tear the sculpture apart while we talked. Admittedly, I knew this was a rare moment; not many can experience deconstructing a sculpture with the artist. This gave me a chance to understand the motions and emotions in each stroke of clay. Some layers were deep and wide where her palm had intuitively pushed the clay in strokes or her hands had skillfully applied a knife or tool to cut the clay away. Like painterly brush marks, other layers were thin and delicate where she had used the softness of her thumb or the decisive stroke of a small tool. What was constant in DeDecker's manipulation of the clay was the freshness of each stroke.
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